Her Boss's One-Night Baby. Jennie Lucas

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       There will be no romance, no marriage. No consequences. Neither of us will ever speak of this again. Even to each other. Do you agree?

      Yes.

      She’d never imagined their one night together could lead to a child. What should she do? Should she tell him? Could she?

      Hana had only found out about the pregnancy a few hours ago, when she’d taken the test on their private jet from Madrid. But already, this child felt real. She placed her hand wondrously over the curve of her belly. A baby.

      “What’s wrong, Hana?” Antonio demanded beside her. “Why are you so distracted?”

      Looking up with an intake of breath at the handsome Spaniard sitting beside her, she choked out, “Antonio, there’s something I need to tell you.”

      The local driver and Ramon Garcia, the bodyguard who usually traveled with him, glanced at each other in the front seat. None of Mr. Delacruz’s employees would dream of calling him by his first name. Aside from their night in bed, Hana had never taken such a liberty before. At least not out loud.

      He looked at her coldly. “Yes, Miss Everly?”

      His husky, slightly accented voice put her firmly in her place, reminding her—if she needed reminding—that she was his employee, nothing more.

      Hana’s soul quailed. They were nearly to the Marunouchi district, where a critical business negotiation waited. She and Antonio, along with the rest of the Tokyo-based team, had been prepping for this for months. Antonio was obsessed with negotiating a codeshare with Iyokan Airways, an important regional airline that would gain them routes to Tokyo, Osaka and beyond.

      Maybe she should put off telling him about the baby for now.

      Maybe she should put it off forever.

      She pushed the traitorous thought aside. Even if Antonio rejected her and the baby outright, didn’t he have the right to know? Didn’t her baby at least deserve the chance to have a father?

      “I need to tell you something,” she whispered. She glanced uneasily toward the two men sitting in the front seat, who were pretending not to listen. “About...that night.”

      Antonio looked at her, his dark eyes like ice. “Which night is that?”

      Did he truly not remember? His handsome face was so arrogant and cold, she almost wondered if the night he’d taken her virginity had been a dream. But the pregnancy test had left no doubt.

      Hana lifted her chin and said clearly, “Our night together in Madrid. Two months ago.”

      The eyes of the men in the front seat went wide. Antonio calmly pressed the button to close the privacy screen between the front and back of the luxury sedan. Once it was closed, he turned on her fiercely.

      “You promised never to talk about it.”

      “I know, but—”

      “There’s no but. You gave me your word.”

      “I have good reason—”

      “I can imagine.” His jaw clenched as he turned away. “You will put that night from your mind, Miss Everly. It never happened.”

      As the Rolls-Royce Phantom turned up the sweeping curve in front of a gleaming skyscraper overlooking the wide green-and-pink vistas of the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, her voice was a squeak. “But—”

      The car stopped, and a waiting doorman reached to open his door.

      “It never happened,” Antonio repeated, and without bothering to look at her, he swept out, all masculine power and hard muscular angles in his dark suit and sharply tailored black cashmere coat.

      Pulling her handbag over her shoulder, Hana climbed out behind him numbly. Her heart was pounding. She held her notebook and briefcase tightly against her chest, as if they could protect her.

      “Welcome, Mr. Delacruz,” Emika Ito, the Tokyo team lead, greeted them in English with a respectful bow of her head. She was pretty, black-haired and chic. She smiled at Hana, who tried to smile back. “All is ready, sir.”

      Standing on the sidewalk, Hana glanced at the building. Inside the glass and steel lobby, she saw the rest of the lead team already assembled, waiting for their arrival so they could go to their new office on the top three floors.

      “Yes, of course,” Antonio said. “Thank you, Miss Ito. Give me a moment.” With a nod, the girl returned to the lobby, leaving Hana and Antonio alone, with his bodyguard at a discreet distance. He looked down at her.

      “So you agree?” he said tersely. It was intimate, having them so close together on the sidewalk in the cool spring morning. “It’s forgotten?”

      Hana felt a breeze against her hot cheek, saw a single cherry blossom floating and twisting in a tumult on the wind, before disappearing into the traffic of Hibiya Dori.

      She couldn’t tell him. She just couldn’t. She’d nod and quietly go into the building, and be the assistant he needed during this important meeting. Afterward, she would quit. She would disappear. She bowed her head.

      “Good,” he said. She saw the glint in his eyes as he turned toward the door. She tried to follow. To be silent.

      But her heart wouldn’t let her.

      “I’m pregnant, Antonio,” she heard herself blurt out.

       Pregnant?

      Antonio Delacruz froze, sure he’d heard her wrong. Above them, the sky was overcast as from a distance he heard ominous thunder.

      Slowly, he turned to her on the sidewalk. “What?”

      “You heard me.”

      His eyebrows lowered fiercely. “April Fool’s Day was yesterday.”

      “It’s not a joke. I’m pregnant.”

      Antonio told himself he felt nothing. He wouldn’t, couldn’t, feel the rush of emotion suddenly circling him like a predator, looking for any crack in his armor, so it could invade and destroy his heart.

       She’d slept with another man.

      He tapped the roof of the car harder than necessary, and the chauffeur drove away from the curb. Forcibly relaxing his shoulders, he said merely, “I thought you had more sense.”

      Hana’s sweep of dark eyebrows lifted over her warm brown eyes in surprise. “What?”

      He wondered who the baby’s father might be. She’d been a virgin when—he cut that thought off immediately. But she must have found a new lover right after.

      The same week?

      The same night?

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